Posted: Jun 9, 2012 4:00 PM
Updated: Jun 10, 2012 4:01 AM
Tax increase if health law is overturned? It's possible for some families with young adults
WASHINGTON (AP) It sounds like a silver lining. Even if the Supreme Court overturns President Barack Obama's health care law, employers can keep offering popular coverage for the young adult children of their workers.
But here's the catch: The parents' taxes would go up.
That's only one of the messy potential ripple effects when the Supreme Court delivers its verdict on the Affordable Care Act this month. The law affects most major components of the U.S. health care system in its effort to extend coverage to millions of uninsured people.
Because the legislation is so complicated, an orderly unwinding would prove difficult if it were overturned entirely or in part.
Better Medicare prescription benefits, currently saving hundreds of dollars for older people with high drug costs, would be suspended. Ditto for preventive care with no co-payments, now available to retirees and working families alike.
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Europe's bailout of Spanish banks buys policymakers time to end euro crisis, eases market fear
WASHINGTON (AP) The plan to bail out Spain's banks with up to $125 billion in aid buys European policymakers time to try to save the euro and eases deep fears in global financial markets.
The deterioration of Spain's banks and the pressing need for a rescue was threatening to bankrupt its government. That would likely cause far more pain for Europe than the financial messes in Greece, Portugal and Ireland, smaller economies that have received bailouts.
Investors need all the reassurance they can get. They're already worried about what will happen when Greek voters go to the polls June 17. The Greeks could elect a government that will refuse to live up the terms of a $170 billion bailout. That could force the country to exit the euro an outcome that would raise fears that another, bigger European country might be next.
"A significant part of this (bailout for Spanish banks) has to do with ring-fencing Greece," says Jacob Kirkegaard, a research fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. "This is enough to prevent added market contagion."
Spain on Saturday asked the 17 countries that use the euro currency for money to rescue its banking system. European officials responded by offering to provide up to $125 billion to rebuild Spanish banks' capital, their financial bulwark against losses on bad loans.
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Ill-fated train ride tears Indian boy from mother, sparks 25-year worldwide hunt for home
KHANDWA, India (AP) Saroo's eyes snapped open and everything was suddenly, horribly, wrong.
The 5-year-old's tiny body was still curled up on the hard wooden seat of the Indian train, just as it was when he'd drifted off to sleep. The rattle of the train was loud and steady, just as it always was when he rode home with his big brother, Guddu.
But Guddu was not there. And the alien landscape flashing past the window looked nothing like home.
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This is the first in a two-part series.
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Egypt's Mubarak slips in and out of consciousness; family visits after rumors of his death
CAIRO (AP) An Egyptian security official says former president Hosni Mubarak has been slipping in and out of consciousness, more than a week after he was transferred to a hospital inside a Cairo prison to serve his life sentence.
The official says Mubarak's wife, former first lady Suzanne Mubarak, and her two daughters-in-law were visiting him in prison Sunday morning after rumors circulated that he had died. Mubarak was admitted to the Torah prison after a judge convicted him on June 2 of failing to stop the killings of protesters during last year uprising which forced him out of power.
The official says Mubarak lives only on liquids and yogurt. The official, who is in the prison, spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
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Syrian National Council opposition group elects Kurd as new leader
BEIRUT (AP) Syria's main opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Council, has elected a Kurdish dissident as its new leader at a meeting in Turkey, a council statement said.
Abdulbaset Sieda, a 56-year-old activist who has been living in exile in Sweden for many years, was the only candidate to replace liberal opposition leader Burhan Ghalioun for the three-month presidency. He was elected unanimously during an SNC meeting Saturday night in Istanbul that stretched into early hours Sunday.
The Paris-based Ghalioun, who had presided over the council since it was created last August, recently offered to step down over mounting criticism of his leadership and repeated renewals of his three-month term. Several prominent Syrian dissidents have quit the group calling it an "autocratic" organization no better than the authoritarian rule of President Bashar Assad.
They also complained the group was dominated by Islamists, including the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.
The Syrian opposition has been hobbled by disorganization and infighting since the popular revolt against Assad began 15 months ago. Its international backers have repeatedly appealed for the movement to pull together and work as one unit. The SNC itself has been plagued by infighting, hampering efforts by Western and Arab nations to help the opposition.
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Western wildfires force evacuations, destroy structures and threaten others
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) Firefighters in Colorado and New Mexico are battling wind-fueled wildfires that are moving fast through parched forests, forcing scores of evacuations and destroying or damaging numerous structures.
A blaze in northern Colorado was first reported Saturday morning and had grown to about 8,000 acres by mid-evening, while a fire in southern New Mexico was small for a few days until it began growing Friday, reaching about 10,000 acres.
Both fires have damaged property and forced numerous evacuations, but officials haven't yet released specific figures on the numbers who fled.
The wildfire in the mountainous Paradise Park area, about 20 miles northwest of Fort Collins, prompted several dozen evacuation orders.
Larimer County Sheriff's Office spokesman John Schulz said the fire expanded rapidly during the late afternoon and evening and by Saturday night, residents living along several roads in the region had been ordered to evacuate and many more were warned that they might have to flee. An evacuation center has been set up at a Laporte middle school.
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APNewsBreak: US official makes highest-ranking visit to Mogadishu in years
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) The highest ranking U.S. official to visit Somalia's capital in years landed in Mogadishu on Sunday in another sign of improving security in the Horn of Africa's most chaotic nation.
Johnnie Carson, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, arrived at the seaside airport Sunday morning, said Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, the spokesman for the African Union military force in Somalia.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman in neighboring Kenya said he could not comment. However, Carson is scheduled to speak at a news conference in Nairobi Kenya's capital later Sunday.
African Union troops pushed al-Shabab fighters out of the capital in August, allowing markets and even the arts to flourish for the first time in years. The U.N.'s top official visited in December the first visit by the U.N. secretary-general in nearly two decades.
The U.S. does not have an embassy in Somalia, though embassy officials from neighboring Kenya have visited Somalia in recent months and years. The last senior U.S. government official to visit Mogadishu appears to have been a visit by Gen. Anthony Zinni in 1997.
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Report by Auburn police they responded to call of multiple gunshot victims at apt. complex
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) The police chief in the Alabama city of Auburn said early Sunday that authorities responded overnight to a report of multiple gunshot victims at an apartment complex, but he added he was not immediately releasing any further information.
Auburn Police Chief Tommy Dawson told the Opelika-Auburn News that police answered a report of multiple shooting victims Saturday night but he had no immediate comment on the situation, the circumstances involved or whether anyone was in custody.
The newspaper reported that several emergency vehicles had converged on the University Heights apartment complex where a number of students who attend Auburn University typically reside.
An Auburn police dispatcher contacted by The Associated Press said early Sunday she had no immediate information to release. Police did not immediately return repeated telephone messages seeking comment and the dispatcher later said she had no indication on any subsequent release of information planned by authorities.
John Atkinson, a spokesman for East Alabama Medical Center, told the newspaper in the report online early Sunday that any information would be released later in coordination with the local coroner's office and the Auburn police department.
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Surprise: D'Angelo makes 1st US appearance in 12 years during Questlove show at Bonnaroo
MANCHESTER, Tenn. (AP) D'Angelo is back.
The reclusive R&B singer made his first live U.S. appearance in 12 years at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival early Sunday morning, surprising a few thousand fans during Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson's Superjam session.
"I've been waiting 12 years to say this ladies and gentlemen, D'Angelo!," Thompson said as the crowd roared.
It was his first U.S. show since 2000 and a prelude to an appearance at July's Essence Music Festival and a European tour with many of the same players who backed him Sunday morning. D'Angelo played live in Europe earlier this year.
D'Angelo and his all-star band powered through a 90-minute jam session Sunday morning that included Jimi Hendrix's "Have You Ever Been to Electric Ladyland," Parliament Funkadelic's "Funky Dollar Bill," Led Zeppelin's "What Is and What Should Never Be" and The Beatles' "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window," but no new music.
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7th Heaven for Heat: Miami tops Boston 101-88 to earn spot in NBA finals with Oklahoma City
MIAMI (AP) LeBron James finally got a Game 7 victory, on his third try.
Next up, the NBA finals and his third try at that elusive first championship. A year after watching someone else celebrate on their home floor, the Miami Heat were the ones dancing at midcourt.
James had 31 points and 12 rebounds, Chris Bosh hit a career-best three 3-pointers the last sparking the run that put it away and the Heat won their second straight Eastern Conference title by beating the Boston Celtics 101-88 in Game 7 on Saturday night.
Miami opens the title series in Oklahoma City on Tuesday night. The Heat got there by outscoring Boston 28-15 in the fourth quarter, with the "Big Three" of Dwyane Wade, Bosh and James scoring every Miami point.
"We decided to come together and play together for a reason," Wade said.